Description

1916 (Feb 5) Plain envelope with vertical crease to Seraing from Belgian refugee Barrack 5, Camp Harderwijk bearing green Intereeringskampen stamp tied Harderwijk /5 cds & violet oval Interneeringsdepot /2e Afdeelinng /Harderwijk + unframed Portvirj /Franc de Port/Militaires Etrangers /Internes dans lespays-Bas + framed Unzulassig Zuruck translating roughly to Inadmissible Return……..
During WW1 Holland was neutral & by Jan 1916, 80,000 Belgian refugees had entered the country. To appease the German censors complaints & in an effort to control the flow of mail the Dutch decided to issue special stamps for the use of internees, the idea being that the design would be changed monthly. The 1st & only issue was a disaster as the German censors considered the adhesives large enough to carry messages underneath & returned all mail rather than potentially create more work for themselves